Last month we’ve released Saluti Cards 1.2, which has more templates, a few helpful features and support for Mobypicture. That calls for a little celebration, so….
Download Saluti Cards 1.2 if you haven’t already. Then upload a Saluti Card with your cutest/funniest/arty-est picture of your cat, dog, rabbit, pet shark or snake, pet bonzai tree or pet rock to Mobypicture to compete!
Make sure you mention the hashtag #saluticompetition in your message, so we can find your submissions. That’s all there’s to it!
One of the new things we introduced with Saluti Cards 1.2 is support for Mobypicture.
You may not know Mobypicture, so we figured we’d explain a bit.
Mobypicture is a image posting service that connects (most probably) all your social networks like Hyves, Facebook and Twitter, too. Now, when you post an image or Saluti Card to your Mobypicture account, Mobypicture will take that picture and post it on all your social networks for you. Sending a Saluti Card to Mobypicture is easy: all you need is a Mobypicture account ór your twitter login credentials.
Sending a Saluti Card to Mobypicture
Submitting your card to Mobypicture is easy! Just create your card like you usually do. Then, when you get to select a recipient select “Upload to Mobypicture”. You’ll then be asked for your login information. After you’ve logged in succesfully, Saluti Cards will ask for an additional title. This text will be shown above your image on Mobypicture.com.
Finally, just hit ‘Send your card’ to upload your card to Mobypicture and all your social networks.
The new Saluti Cards release is available now! This new release features some changes and improvements, but also carries a mayor new feature.
We added about 10 new postcard templates and removed a few that you never used. Including a bunch new multi-photo templates that you know and love! Check out the templates photo album on our Facebook page for a sneak preview.
Another small improvement is that you can now change the name of the person (as shown on the envelop) who is receiving the card. You can do this without having to rename your contact. Thanks to @Karinn for requesting this feature.
Browsing through the postcard templates works a lot better now. It was too fast in the previous release.
We also added a small feature that can warn you if you’re trying to submit your card over 3G. Just to keep those roaming charges in check. Activate it through Settings.
The new feature we implemented is pretty cool. We hope you will also enjoy this one! We integrated the Mobypicture service into Saluti Cards. This means you can use your Mobypicture account to send a postcard to your online friends. Mobypicture support Facebook, Twitter, Hyves, Wordpress, Tumblr, and a lot more networks.
Create a Moby account for free if you don’t have one yet! If you do not have an account, you can login with your Twitter credentials. This will instantly share your postcard on Twitter.
Not only are we updating the iPhone app, but we are also improving the cards. Because it is a good thing to be ambitious. And there is always some room for improvement, right? Sorry about the bragging, but we are just happy with all improvements
You may have noticed the small changes if you have received a Saluti Card in the last few days? Last week we changed to heavier printing paper. This means that the cards feel even more sturdy.
One other advantage is that the cards will keep there original state even when they have been standing on your cupboard. Our previous cards tended to loose their form after a few hours. And that looked a bit sad.
This photo will show the difference between the two cards. On the left you can see our heavier paper in use. The card is standing up proud, like it should. The card on the right is an example of our former cards. You can see it tends to lay down. Kind of a lazy card
But we are thrilled to introduce you to our new and proud cards. It will never ever let hang down its head. Of course we hope you are happy too.
Why? You have to find out for yourself. Just read our update.
We are thrilled to tell you that we have been getting a lot of positive feedback on the Saluti Cards application. Change and development is needed, however, if we want to take this app to the next level. And that is what we did. Even if we wanted to, we are not able to sit still. Release 1.2 is the result of our busy minds.
What to expect? Although everybody is telling us how they love the multiple photo templates. And we have the stats to proof it: the multiple photo templates almost fill our top 5 of sent cards! We want to surprise you with some more of these templates and many more…
And we have been Photoshopping like crazy to make this happen. 17 New templates are added to our Facebook page.
Because you are the ones using the app, your opinions matters. So we are really looking forward to hearing what you think of the new designs. Love ‘em or hate ‘em? Check them out in our photo album.
After my former blog ‘How to make the perfect iPicture‘ you should now be able to make okay pictures with your iPhone camera. But the question is, are you ready for a whole new step? Which is post processing with some great photo apps to take your pictures to the next level. I challenge you to be different…
There are quite a few cool photo apps that add a really nice touch to your iPhone photo’s, even if the 2 MP lens is a bit crappy now and then. Especially when the light is bad and you are shaking too much the result can be a bit delirious: way out of focus, grained, blurry. Well, you know what I mean! But while using a post processing application in combination with the very low MP lens, it has its charms.
Why? I think that the rough touch of the iPhone lens with a post processing app, for example Hipstamatic makes your photo’s rather arty, original and -yes yes, it is cliché- seriously unique. I always like the result. It makes photographing with the iPhone fun and you certainly make some snapshots of subjects you will never shoot with a DSLR. Because the result of a pro cam has to be good. Or, that is what we like to think anyway.
So there are six applications I’d like you to try which can do wonders with a boring and plain image.
Hipstamatic (€1,59) is far out my favourite. They simulate an old school analogue camera. What makes it special is that you can choose from an amount of camera’s, flashlights, types of film (you have to buy them separately within the application, €0,79!) and they all have a different look and feel: a spectrum of diverse colours, frames and style.
Another fun app to work with is CameraBag (€1,59). However, less diverse than Hipstamatic, the post processing has a nice and authentic vibe.
If you are as crazy as I about polaroids, Polarize (free app, check their Flickr page) certainly is a must have. You can totally bring back the seventies with this application. It looks like a real polaroid including the unique frame and vintage tones.
Too much objects on your image? No worries, with PS Mobile (free app) you can crop or rotate your picture and isolate the object that needs to be framed. PS Mobile offers some other tools to process the image. I don’t think they are really interesting, because there are lots of fine post processing tools. But PS mobile is pretty useful to -like I said- crop, a functionality that most of the apps lack.
Two more apps I use for fun. Pano (€2,39) for beautiful, seamless panoramic photos. It is very nice shooting some panoramas when you have a lovely view. With the semi-transparent guide within the app you can line up each shot perfectly. Handy, isn’t it? Or for a silly yet funny and interesting effect, Tiltshift Generator (€0,79) which allows you to create retro miniature pictures.
Well, I think you have enough tools to blow me away with your stunning iPictures and I hope you will find them useful. However, it wasn’t my intention to lecture though What I was trying to show you by writing these blogs, is that you can create something beautiful out of a boring, plain and rather bad quality camera or image just by adding some adjustments. Easy, peasy!
In my opinion the iPhone is slightly underrated sometimes. Especially when it comes to taking pictures. True, you can not compare a 2 MP lens with the amazing quality of a DSLR. Then again the iPhone wasn’t made for taking ’stunningly beautiful’ pictures. But you can still make some great, original snapshots of daily life…
Nowadays there are lots of people who are using their iPhone for snapshots. Why wouldn’t you? It is the most carried device we have and therefore always at hand. You have to agree that it is a lot less heavy than having to wear an enormous bag with an even heavier camera. Or as Chase Jarvis (famous iPhoneographist) likes to say -sorry, you will hear this name from time to time on Saluti- “The best camera, is the one with you.” So there!
But this isn’t about others making pictures with an iPhone. More importantly is, how can you make these kind of iPictures yourself? There are a few basics you have to keep in mind while taking pictures with your phone.
Appropriate light
First of all, what the iPhone cam really needs is an appropriate amount of light. Because the auto-exposure metering is very sensitive, you have to be aware of the light there is and how you can use it. If there is a bright light behind your subject, point the angle of your iPhone a bit down so there is less of the light (sky) in the frame. Your subject will be exposed correctly.
Ohw, and don’t take pictures in direct sunlight unless it is your intention to make a more abstract picture. Some shade can soften the shadows and cloudy days will make portraits more visible.
Loose the center composition
Mostly we are putting our subject right in the center of an image, just out of habit. I tell you, loose this attitude because it is been done before. If you want something different, try the so called ‘rule of thirds‘, which means “the points of power lie on the intersection of lines of a three-by-three grid on the screen.” Or in plain words, just put the subject more to the right, left or anything that isn’t in dead center of the frame.
It is al about the background
Mind what you are shooting. Because you can’t get a nice DOF or blur out of the iPhone, every object in the picture will be in focus and the main subject won’t stand out. Make sure there aren’t any annoying objects in the background or just get close to the subject you want to photograph.
Some cleaning
Dirt can block your view. So some cleaning is needed now and then. Use a lens-cleaning tissue, however and not your finger.
Switch, is the keyword
Think outside the box, even if you are accustomed to hold the iPhone in Portrait modes. Simply switch your iPhone to landscape orientation once in while. A different view, makes a different image.
Just hold still
And last but not least, we know that an iPhone isn’t as stable or massive as a DSLR. To make a rather sharp picture, you have to hold the iPhone as still as possible. The steadier, the less blurry the pictures will be.
And of course you can tune up your pictures by using other processing applications to make a beautiful, funny or totally different image. But that story will be told some other time
Easter is coming up and we thought it would be a nice idea to start a little contest.
In about three weeks we are celebrating Easter. Eating lots of eggs and doing.. uuh.. Well, you know.. At least it is a nice opportunity to test your creativity. Send us your most creative Easter-styled Saluti ecard and win free stamps! To get your creative juices flowing we used a nice one from NomadicLass on Flickr.
Get creative and use Saluti to create you funniest, cutest or coolest creation. Send your Saluti ecard to ecard[at]salutiapp.com. We will post all entries on our Facebook fanpage. Don’t forget to tell us why you should win a free stamp!
We will announce the winners on the 5th of April (which is the second day of Easter this year by the way).
Saluti Cards 1.1 is packing a cool new feature! You have probably seen it in our screencast, but we wanted to make it official anyway.
To help you remember the amount of stamps you have left, we added a badge to the Saluti Cards spingboard icon. You probably know this icon from the mail App. We haven’t submitted the 1.1 release to Apple yet. We are hoping to get this done this week.
Browsing through the postcard templates works a lot better now. It was too fast in the previous release.
And we have been Photoshopping like crazy to make this happen. 17 New templates are added to 
Hipstamatic
